This invention relates to control housings (commonly referred to as pendants) which house control boards used to control equipment, such as hospital beds or other electronic equipment device requiring remote control , and to a method for producing the housings to mold instructional or operating insignia directly onto the housing.
Hand held controls or pendants are commonly used in the medical field to control various types of medical equipment. One common place such pendants are used is to control the position of hospital beds. As is known, the position of a hospital bed can be changed to alter (1) the height of the bed; (2) the angle of the head of the bed; and (3) the angle of the foot of the bed. Typically, a control unit is mounted to the bed itself for use by hospital staff. However, to let the patient control the bed position, a pendant control is also provided. A bed controller generally includes three sets of buttons: one to control the bed height, one to control the angle of the head of the bed; and one to control the angle of the foot of the bed. Depending on the equipment being operated by the controller, the button arrangements will vary, and, in fact, other button arrangements are common. Current regulations require that instructional or operating insignia be applied to the pendant to inform the patient which buttons control which functions. Such insignia (or functions) can also include accessories, such as massagers, heaters, TV, radio, nurse calls, or other devices or functions it is desirable to provide for a patient. Additionally, insignia identifying the pendant manufacturer can also be included on the pendant. Currently, these insignia are printed onto the pendant. However, over time, the printed insignia wears off.
Further, current manufacturing procedures for the pendant housings result in small crevices or gaps around the pendant's buttons through which contaminants (i.e., liquids, gases, and even small solids or particulate matter) can pass and come into contact with the control board. For example, the pendant buttons often extend through openings in the front surface of the pendant. Hence, there is a slight gap between the button and the edge of the button hole through which contaminants can pass. Thus, although the pendant itself can be wiped, for example, with alcohol, to clean, disinfect, and sterilize the surface of the pendant, any contaminants that may have entered the pendant itself cannot be sterilized. When contaminants enter the pendant housing, they can affect the operation of the device being controlled if they reach the control board within the housing. Further, in a hospital setting, such contaminants can lead to cross-contamination.
Hence, it would be desirable to produce a pendant which even further reduces the possibility of contaminants from entering the housing; and which reduces the possibility of the instructional insignia from wearing off the pendant.
The current production methods for producing hospital bed controllers tend to result in controllers which are fairly thick. For example, a typical bed controller is about 1″–2″ thick. It would be desirable to produce a controller which is thinner. A thinner controller is lighter, and can also be easier for certain patients to hold and use (i.e., the patient will be able to reach the buttons of the controller more easily).